I sense that many Americans are really looking for a revolution, that they cannot find society worth investing in and protecting. We can only hope their homes spontaneously combust before their neighbors come with torches, it seems they can only be taught by accidental tragedy. They are not prepared for purposeful militancy. It all comes apart quicker than they think.
I wrote this yesterday in response to some messages I overheard about civil war in response to the failure to arrest Hilary Clinton. Yes Virginia, Twitter has made billionaires from gossip. And so we are a nation of gossip some of which is structured and bankrolled sufficiently enough to be called politics. The future is here, but the neanderthals are quite evenly distributed. Can you hear the howling? Of course you can.
I don't know the names of the last 20 men to be shot dead in America's streets. I can wait to find out the decision of the juries. I have that much patience. It's not just because I'm on vacation in Solvang, California. It's because I understand that the rule of law requires patient deliberation, much more patience than various aggravated tribes are currently willing to expend. The mobs are out. Those invested in chaos are making their point, and the revolutionaries will pick up the ball tomorrow. If I may indulge my ribald sense of humor, the noise sounds a little like Yosemite Sam.
But this is no cartoon. This is political violence. This is putting real revolutionary skin in the game. Shooting cops is the ultimate civil disobedience. It is unmistakeable. This is the turning point for BlackLivesMatter, if they're willing to claim any responsibility. I find it difficult to believe that the shooters had no connection, although there is an interesting possibility that this might be a very clever false flag operation or two entirely random nutjobs found their way into this obscene opportunity. Either way, BLM is the reason and the bearer of the concept that pitchforks and torches are carried to the street. After all, who is it that cannot tweet non-violently? BLM, like ISIS have staked out dubious territory and have captivated millions with their blunted ideas. And while many millions will claim moderation and decry the violent extremism, they nonetheless work from principles that call for radical reform as if the police in America have a serious deadly obsession.
I was speculating today while thinking about the topic of police lethality about how advocates of police disarmament might consider the fallback to billy clubs and chokeholds. There's not much lethal about a broken jaw and unconscious choked out suspects offer very little resistance. Would today's advocates trade a few more broken bones for a few less deaths? Or is this the kind of bloody calculus to be avoided in protest policy? I don't think it much matters to a crowd whose mind is made up. After all, Rodney King didn't die at the hands of police, but 50 people did in the ensuing riots.
I expect many Americans will accept a rewritten history according to the narrative that serves a President who is not saying 'cool it baby'. They will accept that all the racists in America decided to rise up during his administration and cause this kind of inevitable uprising in this long hot summer. After all, who could not be against racism, and who cannot see how these poor black victims are psychologically unable to contain their justifiable rage? This is predictable in the society we put up with today, and so will be the mindless backlash of yet another 'silent majority' who says a little rough street justice is in order.
This is simply another coordinated terrorist attack on American soil. It's another set of people impatient to show their dedication to America's destruction, another cohort who cannot abide our status quo. One more set of fanatics with no patience whatsoever with our free society. I think I recognize the reception they're going to get, depending on their Mumia factor. So let's all watch out for that. Michael Eric Dyson is quick to explain that black people see things differently when watching videos. No they don't. It's elementary to suss out what people think police are doing and thus what should be done to police. Then again, why should anyone be surprised at Dyson's angle?
But let's remind ourselves of a bit of recent history, shall we? In January of 2015, a small device blew up on the outside wall of an NAACP office in Colorado. It made national headlines and invoked a litany of pontifications from John Lewis and Julian Bond, like this:
“Obviously, this is a terrorist attack,” says Julian Bond, a University of Virginia history professor and a long-time chairman of the NAACP.
As head of the NAACP from 1998 to 2010, Bond says there were zero violent incidents like what occurred Tuesday in Colorado Springs. And in recent decades, acts of violence aimed at the NAACP have tapered off. But the organization has dealt with direct threats virtually since it began in 1909, with one of the worst occurring in 1951 when Harry Moore, who founded an NAACP branch in Brevard County, Florida, was killed on Christmas Day after a bomb was placed underneath his bed. No one was arrested, but several Ku Klux Klan members were suspected in the incident.
A little over a decade later, Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader and field secretary for the NAACP, was shot and killed in his own driveway after meeting with the group’s lawyers. Byron De La Beckwith, a white supremacist, was later convicted in the killing.
Notice how they throw in some Ferguson stuff. Read the whole article. A month later the truth was revealed that the would-be hate crime racist was trying to scare his tax attorney.
We are prepared, too many of us, to jump off the deep end with crazy speculation and trumped up victimization. So it's going to be a very tedious but interesting time to see who tries to make hay with this actual terrorist disaster and try to parlay it into the kind of racial complaint BLM has been begging for all these months.
I do not accept much that will pass for conventional wisdom over the next month, so I will attempt to ignore that which I expect to only add to my contempt for tribal impatience in today's identity soaked electorate.
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